It would be easy, and somewhat understandable, if Tanner Bibee were to express some dissatisfaction with the way his season is going for the Cleveland Guardians so far. The starting pitcher might even be warranted in pointing the finger at some of his teammates.
Yet, despite failing to earn a win in his team-leading eight starts, Bibee is taking a more measured and mature approach. As a veteran, he knows the game is full of ups and downs, and this recent drought will go the other way at some point.
After a loss to the Kansas City Royals on Monday that dropped his record to 0-5, Bibee opened up about the lack of run support he has received from the Guardians’ offense, saying it’s out of his hands.
“It’s completely unrelated. I feel what the hitters do is their thing and I can only control what I’m doing on the mound,” Bibee said. “It’s a completely independent thing that’s going on. I mentioned this last week, I’m playing a different sport than the other nine guys on the field. It’s completely independent.”
Cleveland has won just one of the eight games started by Bibee this season, and that was back on Opening Day, when the Guardians broke a tie after Bibee had left the game in a 6-3 win. In the six starts that followed, Cleveland gave Bibee just one run of support while he was on the mound.
That changed on Monday, when David Fry handed Bibee and the Guardians a two-run lead with a second-inning home run. However, Bibee was unable to hold it, allowing four runs on five hits in the fourth inning on the way to a 6-2 loss.
Excluding a poor performance against the Atlanta Braves, when he gave up eight runs on 11 hits in 4.2 innings, Bibee has pitched well enough to win in almost all of his other starts. The right-hander has allowed one run three times, and against the Baltimore Orioles on April 17, he pitched six scoreless innings in a game Cleveland lost 6-4. For the season, Bibee has a 4.58 ERA and 1.47 WHIP, which would each be a career high over a full season.
Last year, Bibee started off 4-9 before pitching very well during the pennant race to finish at 12-11, so he knows there is still plenty of time to turn things around.
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